What is a covenant. The covenant in the scriptures (Hebrew: berit) is the binding agreement between Yhwh and the people of Israel , in which each agrees to a set of obligations toward the other. Covenants are also made between people as well as institutions. They are basically agreements that have written clauses that are legally binding when they are signed by witnesses. One such covenant is marriage. Covenants of promise usually include a proposal, an acceptance, a confirming meal, blood ratification, and foot washing.
In the East some covenants were made using animals who were cut in two and the people who were making it would walk through the pieces. This signified that if they did not keep it they should die. This was to help those making the covenant to fear death and so remain faithful to the covenant they had made.
covenants cannot be kept by force
This could be the rational behind the marriage vows commonly used and first introduced by the church of England. It could have been an attempt to cause people to take marriage seriously. However only boundaries can do that and still protect freewill. To encourage human beings to make covenants using promises that they are likely to break is disingenuous.
The ease with which new year’s resolutions are abandoned is an example of the fickle nature of human beings.
The Almighty’s covenant with Israel was more in the form of a boundary. It gave conditions that needed to be kept and told what would happen if they were not upheld. This ensured that the other party in the covenant retained the freedom to obey or disobey. This also took into account human nature, which was prone to be unfaithful.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
John 15 v 5
Why we can’t keep covenant
Humans tend to forget their promises because they are generally unfaithful, and are therefore prone to breaking them. Since covenants usually involve promises, this means on our own we are likely to break them.
Joshua tried to warn the children of Isreal that they were not able to keep the covenant with Yhwh : but they felt that they could. We often feel we can too, but over time our commitment wanes when circumstances change.
“And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Almighty: for he is an holy/set apart God/Elohim; he is a jealous God/Elohim; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the Almighty, and serve strange gods/elohims , then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Almighty.
22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Almighty, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.”
Joshua 24 v 19-24
Our human and sinful nature makes it very difficult for us to keep our word. Messiah knew the nature of mankind, which is why he said.
“But Jesus/Yashya didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people.”
John 2 v 24
Examples of people in the scriptures who did not keep their word .
Esau
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25 v 32-34
And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.
33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? Genesis 27
So although Esau had sold his birthright in a moment of weakness , apparently he forgot that he did and fully intended to keep it.
Laban
These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God/Elohim of my father, the God/Elohim of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God/Elohim saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”
genesis 38-42
Laban kept changing the terms of the agreement between him and Jacob.
This is what the Almighty says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
jeremiah 17 v 5
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Almighty”
Israel also broke covenant with The Almighty
“ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
james 1 v 23-25
After promising to keep covenant with The Most High Israel also proved unfaithful.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord/Almighty had commanded him to speak. 8 The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord/Almighty has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord/Yhwh. Exodus 19
They turned back to the Idols they were serving before
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord/Almighty.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the Lord/Almighty said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods/elohims, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
exodus 32
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The Almighty must help us to keep covenant
When The Most high wanted to make a covenant with Abraham and ensure that it would be kept, He walked through the pieces Himself.
“And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the Lord/Almighty made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:”
genesis 15
This covenant was kept
I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b]5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions
Genesis 26
Abraham was therefore blessed because he kept the covenant that had been made. Not using his own will or strength but because The Almighty helped him to keep it.
God/Elohim is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
numbers 23 v 19